Diane Mack
'Diane Mack '''is a character in the TACITUS series, introduced in the story "Absurdism vs. Christianity". In the story, she is described as an "Absurdist", a person who believes that human minds are too limited to objectively determine if life has any meaning at all, and who actively questions the main point in having faith in God. Biography The Mack Coalition She is mentioned in The Mack Coalition, where it is revealed that she is the maternal twin sister of Emmett Mack. She later appears at the end of the story, where it is revealed that, like Emmett, Diane has had a history hooking up with multiple men and being in platonic love relationships, a trait that is later revealed to have been inherited from their parents, who also had a platonic relationship with each other prior to marriage. New Dawn and beginnings of Absurdism Sometime after the events of The Mack Coalition, Diane encountered a scavenger hunt/alternate reality game that led to her chasing clues across town. Because she was still coming to terms with her father's death, Diane felt she had nothing else to live for and soon became obsessed with the game after she was promised a prize that led to her having a fulfilling and meaningful life. However, unbeknownst to her, this game was actually a recruiting tool for an international terrorist organization known as New Dawn. According to Diane herself, after realizing New Dawn's true colors, she defected and was consequently marked for termination and pursued across the country. Following this, Diane's perception of reality warped. She began to believe that, if a simple human like her could fall for false messages of finding meaning in life through a scam in the form of a game, then all of life must be the same: a meaningless, absurd, and frustrating conflict between humanity's desire for meaning in life and the inability to find it, that life offers deceptive lies about giving people meaning in purpose in life, only to "rip them off" and trick them into a life of vanity, frustration, and meaninglessness. It was here that she grew to accept the worldview of Absurdism. Life: A Compilation In Life: A Compilation'', Diane is introduced in the short story "Christianity vs. Absurdism". In the story, she is with Gerald Moore and engages with some Christian college students in a conversation about spirituality, during which Diane reveals that she is an Absurdist. Afterwards, she has a brief dialog with Gerald Moore about the latter's view of Jesus Christ's claim to be the only way to God. Sometime between the events of that short story and another short story called "A Street Preacher vs. Street Hooligans", it is revealed that Diane Mack eventually dropped out of college due to unknown circumnstances and later joined Task Force Reaper as an associate, while still maintaining allegiance to Black Rhino Personal details Physical appearance Diane Mack is described as a young girl in her early twenties with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5'6" and has a slim body build. Personality Diane used to be a bubbly, lively child, having a rather happy childhood. However, everything shattered with a series of family tragedies and bad experiences, starting with her father's death in Paris during the terrorist attacks in November of 2015, continuing with her brother Emmett abruptly leaving her for a "life of adventure", and culmilating with the infamous New Dawn conspiracy, where she was lured into New Dawn supposedly to "fix the world", when she was really being used as an accessory to murder, which led her to defect. Ever since then, she has been a cold, angry, and pessimistic person. As a Chimera operative, Diane became a cold, powerful, dark and manipulative person whose specialty is duping people. Habits and beliefs Although she was raised in a churchgoing family, Diane considered herself agnostic. After the death of her father, the abrupt departure of Emmett from her life, and the Black Rhino conspiracy, she adopted the worldview known as "Absurdism", the idea or belief that human beings exist in a purposeless, chaotic universe that offers them false promises of a meaningful existence, only to expose its true colors and leave people with empty hearts, robbed of an empty hope, and ultimately a meaningless existence. She espouses no particular religious beliefs or faiths, instead believing that if God exists, he is unknowable (kind of like her maternal twin brother Emmett), and humans cannot understand His purpose. She is often seen challenging people of faith to argue for how God, if He exists, can make life meaningful, given that humans cannot fully understand or know God themselves. Like Emmett, Diane also takes a great fascination with Christian Theology, often times objecting that knowing Jesus personally surely is not enough to give one's life meaning, and that following Jesus Christ couldn't possibly make life better or more meaningful at all. In fact, given that Christians also suffer just like atheists, Muslims and Agonstics, following Jesus really makes no difference-suffering will occur, no matter what faith you believe in. She commonly wrestles with the seeming contradiction that Christianity holds the ultimate meaning in life, yet Christians suffer evil and hardships just like atheists, or people of the other faiths. Trivia *Originally, Diane and Emmett weren't related and the fact that they shared last names was entirely coincidental. This was later changed. *She is also the first character to infiltrate multiple organizations simultaneously Category:Characters